EMC, a St. Louis-based water services company, owned by BOC of Murray Hill, N.J., has helped municipalities win several awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and from state and national associations for excellent operations at 10 of the facilities it manages.

John Mitchell, EMC's president said, "We're extremely proud of our operations in Indiana and around the country. EMC does an excellent job of providing municipalities with high-caliber water services; we're glad the EPA and other groups think so too."

One of the two wastewater treatment plants that EMC manages for the City of Evansville won First Place in the EPA's Region Five Large Secondary category. In addition, the Evansville East plant was ranked second in the nation in the same category. That plant treats an average of 12 million gallons of wastewater each day.

The Evansville West plant, which treats an average 13.5 million gallons of water a day, also received the George W. Burke award from the Water Environment Federation, a non-profit industry organization. Each year, the WEF presents the Burke award to one wastewater treatment plant in each U.S. state.

To be eligible, facilities must have a written safety program that has been implemented, must have received an OSHA standard inspection from a qualified inspector and had no violations and, most importantly, must have been accident free for the prior year. EMC's plants have won the Burke Award eight times in the past 10 years.

Seven of the 10 EMC water treatment facilities in Indiana also recently received a Laboratory Excellence award from the Indiana Water Pollution Control Association (IWPCA), an industry trade group. EMC's Indiana plants also received IWPCA's safety award. In order to be eligible for that award, the plants must maintain a safety rating of 92 percent or higher in an OSHA standard inspection done by a qualified person within IWPCA.

"Receiving these awards proves that EMC does an excellent job of managing municipalities' water systems," said Jack Danks, executive vice president for the Indiana division of EMC. "We've seen facilities with safety ratings of 45 percent or lower improve to the 95 percent level within six months after we have assumed the operations and maintenance contract."